The Theme Review Team Releases Two Feature Packages, an Autoloader and a Customize Section Button

Two weeks ago, Justin Tadlock published a proposal on behalf of the Theme Review Team to create a set of standardized packages that theme authors can drop-into their themes. This week, the team has released two feature packages that illustrate what the project is trying to accomplish. The first is an Autoloader that provides the means necessary for theme authors …

WP Engine Acquires Flywheel

In a move that caught some people by surprise, WP Engine has announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Managed WordPress host, Flywheel. While financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Heather Brunner, WP Engine’s CEO confirmed to TechCrunch that the company needed to raise a small round of funding to finance the deal. Dusty Davidson, …

Contribution Time, Sponsored, and Teams Fields Added to WordPress.org User Profiles

A new section named Contribution has been added to WordPress.org user profiles. This section contains fields that enable users to share how much time they contribute to WordPress on a weekly basis, which teams they contribute to, and whether or not those contributions are sponsored. New WordPress.org User Profile Fields Each field is optional and will only appear if the …

WooCommerce.com Clarifies Its Policy on Selling CBD Products

Last week, a member of the WooCommerce Help and Share Facebook group who sells Cannabidiol or CBD products submitted a post that included an email exchange with WooCommerce support. In the exchange, the support rep explained to the store owner that when their WooCommerce.com account was connected to a WordPress.com login, it then fell under the WordPress.com store guidelines. According …

Developers at Yoast and Google Collaborate on Proposal to Add XML Sitemaps to WordPress Core

Developers at Google and Yoast are collaborating with other contributors on a proposal to add XML sitemaps to WordPress core. This capability has traditionally been handled by plugins, which provide a variety of implementations. The goal of this new feature project is to ship basic XML sitemaps in core while providing an XML Sitemaps API for plugin developers to extend. …